The Great Parisian Plate Debate

79, rue La Fayette, 75009 (approximately)

I liked Le Corail so much that I took the time to translate what Corail means in English. Per Google, the answer is “corral,” what is a bit perplexing because I don’t recall any of the décor striking me as corral-esque; no pictures of cattle stampedes adorn the walls, no lassos drape from the light fixtures, the waiters wear no cowboy hats…can you imagine a restaurant in the USA named The Corral? I guarantee you that it would have all those things, plus possibly a live pony in the back for children to ride around on. But I’m prepared to forgive such transgressions because, again, I enjoyed my time spent at Le Corail.

We kicked off the evening’s festivities by traipsing through the 9eme. Wandering through any arrindisement is generally pretty interesting, especially on a night when the weather is gorgeous, but when you get up to one where you have rarely ventured – for example, for me the 9eme – there’s always a different charge in the air, that potential to see something new. One of tonight’s cases in point: the street sign indicating that for those with an electric car there was a charging station just around the corner. That’s right, an electric car traffic sign. I liked it so much I snapped a photo.

On this particular night Le Corail had its big windows thrown open in their side dining room, so we were able to get a ‘sidewalk table’ without sitting on the sidewalk, if that makes sense. There we ordered and then proceeded to destroy a refreshing bottle of vintage 2006 Sancerre (a verrrrrrry good year, I’m told!) whilst engaging in an in-depth discussion regarding the necessity of egg whites in a gin fizz and fantasy football.